drawing sound

A collaborative residency, public program and exhibition with multi-instrumentalist and composer Genevieve Fry, curated by Emma Thomson of correspondences.

Presented as the inaugural ‘Resonate’ program, in which a leading musician/composer is invited to respond to a poem, novel, painting, drawing, dance, play, or film that explores everyday spirituality and place, seeking out connections or resonances.

As Emma writes of Drawing Sound:

Featuring live music improvisation, video, drawing, collage and photography by Genevieve Fry and Jessye Wdowin-McGregor, the project examines the art of sound, drawing and walking, the connection of these disciplines with our bodies and the experience of emotional resonance, healing and connectivity with our sense of place.

As her starting point for the project, Genevieve was invited to respond to the visual imagery and environmental sound recordings from Jessye’s video, A Concrete Place, which was filmed along the Moonee Ponds Creek in Brunswick West, a waterway Jessye spent a great deal of time walking along during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The project also took inspiration from Genevieve’s abstract sound drawings, a meditative fine art practice the artist developed coming out of the pandemic.

Each week, Genevieve worked in the gallery space, making and recording her distinctive music alongside a suite of new sound drawings. During these daily sessions, audiences were invited to join the artists, listening and drawing to the sound sketches, which were recorded and are available to listen to on Soundcloud.

As part of the project, Jessye also developed new research in response to the Birrarung (Yarra River), which is Genevieve’s local river, as a continuation of her longstanding examination of urban waterways, place and the thresholds between body and landscape. To read more about this research, explore a conversation between Jessye and Emma via correspondences’ online viewing room.

During the residency period, a number of public engagement events took place, including two early morning urban bushwalks along the Merri Creek and the Birrarung; several evening improvisation sessions with guest musicians (including multi-disciplinary artist Sorim Byeon and multi-instrumentalist Esala Liyanage, crooner/composer Aarti Jadu, and composer/musician Mindy Meng Wang), and a facilitated drawing workshop and in-conversation with the artists.  

Read more about the origins of the project and view Genevieve’s beautiful sound drawings.

Explore a catalogue of works for Jessye’s video and photographic collage works.

Listen to an interview with Genevieve and Jessye talking about Drawing Sound on SmartArts with Oslo Davis on Triple R.

View a list of reading and listening content connected with the project's central ideas and experiences.

Drawing Sound took place during the month of February 2023.

The sounds and images of this project were made on the country of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation. All involved in the project respectfully acknowledge them as the Sovereign Custodians of the land and waters upon which we live and work. The artists wish to pay their respect to their Elders, past and present, and extend this respect to all First Peoples.